TECHdodo

I wrote a post a short time ago about whether RealDVD was as “legal” as they claimed it was. I didn’t really understand how it could be legal compared to other products deemed “illegal”.

I guess I wasn’t the only one. The MPAA apparently does have an issue with the software. Surprise, surprise.

Now the legal battle has begun.

A lawsuit was filed today asking a federal court to stop the distribution of RealDVD because it allows DVDs to be illegally copied.

Their problem with it seems to be exactly what I didn’t understand.

Here is what I said

What I find especially intriguing about this is that even though it is claimed to be legal, it still allows you to make illegal copies of DVD discs that you don’t actually own. If you had a Netflix account for example, you could make copies of DVD movies as fast as you could order them

A direct quote from their press release.

the RealDVD software enables users to engage in an illegal practice known as “rent, rip and return,” whereby a person rents a DVD from a legitimate business like Blockbuster or Netflix, uses the RealDVD software to make multiple permanent illegal copies of the movie, and returns the DVD, only to rent another popular title and make permanent copies of it, repeating the cycle of theft over and over again without ever making a purchase.

Regardless of how I feel about copy protection and DRM; I think it is a futile, unenforceable effort that inconveniences their legitimate customers, I don’t think other companies should be able to profit from other people’s work without permission, which is what RealDVD is trying to do. If the motion picture association wanted software to exist that did what RealDVD does, then they could make it, or they could hire someone like Real to make it. Without DVDs to copy, no one would have any reason to buy RealDVD. Therefore, any profit from a product like RealDVD should really go to the movie makers. If they don’t want to make such a profit, however naive of an idea that may be, then no one else should be able to either.

However, I am not a judge, I am not a lawyer.

My take on the whole situation. I think if you want RealDVD, you better get it while the getting is good, because I don’t think it is going to be around very long.